You are seated as Player 1. The first round's starting player is chosen randomly — each subsequent round starts with the next player clockwise. AI play styles are assigned randomly each round.
PAPER TRAIL▶ Clockwise——
GAME LOG
DRAW PILE
0 cards
DISCARD
YOUR HAND — 0 cards
CASE CLOSED
—
Result
—
—
Round Scores
The Ledger Trail
Hand Timing
Game Summary
Nominate Suit
You played Set-Up (Draw 4). Choose the new active suit.
Draw Stack!
—
Swap Meet
Select one card to pass to the next player in the direction of play. Your choice is locked before anyone receives their card.
PAPER TRAIL
How to Play
The Situation
You and your crew hit the job. Now everyone's holding stolen goods they need to offload before the heat catches up. Move your loot, stay clean, get out.
A card game for 3–5 players. On your turn, play one or more cards onto the discard pile by following the chain rules, or draw 2 cards. The first player to empty their hand wins the round. Lowest cumulative score wins the game.
The Loot — Card Suits
CASHValues 1–6. Untraceable. Except when it isn't.
GEMSValues 1–6. Cut, clean, and still warm from the case.
TECHValues 1–6. Encrypted. Stolen. Somebody's very angry about this.
ARTValues 1–6. Worth more than the job itself — and twice as easy to spot.
SPECIALGone Dark, Misdirect, Set-Up, Swap Meet. Can be played on any card — but must be the last card in the chain.
THE LEDGERNobody planned on taking this. To play it, you must offload everything else first.
Moving Loot — Playing a Chain
Each card must connect to the one before it. You can play a single card or a sequence — click cards in the order you want to play them, then press Play Selected.
Same suit:Value must differ by exactly 1. Values wrap — 1 and 6 are adjacent.
Different suit:Value must be exactly the same as the previous card.
Special card:Can always be played, but must be the last card in the chain.
Top card: Cash 4 — Active suit: Cash
Valid chain: Cash 5 → Cash 6 → Cash 1 (wrap) → Gone Dark
Also valid: Gems 4 (same value, different suit)
After a special card is played, the active suit and value carry forward from the last loot card played before it.
Special Cards
GONE DARKThe next player loses their turn. No answer. No signal. No show.
MISDIRECTDirection of play reverses (clockwise ↔ counter-clockwise). Two in a row cancel out.
SET-UPThe next player must draw 4 cards and lose their turn — unless they also hold a Set-Up, in which case they may stack it, passing the draw on. The draw total accumulates. The player who plays Set-Up nominates the new active suit.
SWAP MEETEvery player simultaneously chooses one card and passes it to the next player in the direction of play. Nobody sees what's coming before they decide what to give up.
The Ledger
One (sometimes two) Ledger cards are shuffled in at the start of each round. To play it, you must first play every other card in your hand — the Ledger must be the very last card played.
If you hold the Ledger and are forced to draw from a Set-Up stack, a special win condition may trigger — see Winning below.
Winning a Round
Clean:Empty your hand without any Ledger cards in your final play. Score 0 points this round.
Cashed Out:Empty your hand with The Ledger as your final play. Score −10 points per Ledger played (−10 for one, −20 for two). Minimum score is 0.
Scoring — Getting Caught
All players except the round winner score points for goods still in hand:
CASH / GEMS / TECH / ARTFace value (1–6 points).
SPECIAL CARD10 points each.
THE LEDGER20 points each. Get caught with both and you're finished.
The game ends when any player reaches 100 points. The player with the lowest total score wins.
Drawing Cards
If you cannot or choose not to play, press Draw 2 to take two cards from the draw pile. Your turn ends immediately. If the draw pile runs out, the discard pile (except the top card) is reshuffled to form a new draw pile.